05/15/2026
Continuing to acknowledge May as National Historic Preservation Month and the thought of Sound As Historic Preservation.
Manistee is still a town rich with sound. We recently invited a group of elementary school kids to our building and greeted them by ringing our big old melodious church bell from 1888. Not an everyday sound occurance, especially for a younger generation, and they were as delighted to hear it as we were to ring it.
Isnt it great to live where we can still hear some of our city's surviving sounds such as a train whistle, a freighter maneuvering the river, the Ojibwe language, among others, still spoken in some areas, and Lake Michigan beach waves?
If you are an older generation resident of Manistee, no doubt you remember the fog horn and the factory whistles, unique ways we knew time, weather, activity, and embraced a charming sense of place.
There's a wonderful article from Mark Fedder regarding the retired factory whistle from a sawmill owned by legendary Louis Sands that resonates with us. (will attach in comments)
THE OLD KIRKE BELL : On January 15, 1888, when the special building committee president presented the new church tower as a gift from the Ladies Aid Society to the congregation, Mr. E. N. Salling (pictured) also presented the church bell, donated at his own expense.
Ernst Nielsen Salling (known locally as Ernest Nelson Salling) was a prominent Danish-born lumber baron in Manistee during the late 19th-century timber boom. Arriving in the U.S. in 1862, he became a key figure in the local industry, with his firm, Engelmann, Babcock & Salling, established in 1877. He became wealthy but always retained a fondness for the little Danish congregation.
Salling was also a railroad investor in the Manistee & Grand Rapids Railroad, a crucial line for hauling logs and freight, alongside other notable lumber barons like John Canfield and E.G. Filer.
The Salling Home is able to be viewed to this day as part of Manistee's historic lumber baron architecture.
